CES 2026 - loving the machines at Caterpillar as AI turns steel into silicon and the physical digital

When people see the big yellow iron, they automatically think about the machines. I do too - I love the machines.

That’s probably just as well given that as CEO of  Caterpillar, big bits of industrial machinery are all part of the day job for Joe Creed. He’s a near 30 year veteran of the US engineering and construction legend which last year celebrated its first century in business. As it looks to the next 100 years, tech is very firmly front-and-center on the agenda, as Creed took to the CES 2026 show to explain.

In fact, tech - and visionary tech at that - has always been part of the Caterpillar DNA, insists Creed, citing an anecdote dating back to 1930 of one of the firm’s employees sketching out what happens when a customer's tractor happens to break down with one day left to get the job done.

That’s an eternal crisis for the firm’s customers, of course, but what’s interesting is that back in the 1930s, the customer was seen in this employee’s imagination as video-calling the Caterpillar dealership via a home TV screen! The dealer himself uses a robotic arm to get the replacement part from a shelf and then it’s transported to the customer’s site in less than half an hour!

This is 1930, remember! As Deed quips:

Nearly a hundred years ago, someone at Caterpillar imagined video calling, connected diagnostics, automated warehouses and last mile drone delivery. Can you imagine working with that person in 1930 with the people around him? They had to have thought he was out of his mind.

But it's that kind of visionary thinking with customer needs at the center that's what powers progress. It's the same spirit that underpins everything we do at Caterpillar today, just with a lot better WiFi.

Invisible

Today, Caterpillar is about “the invisible layer of the tech stack the physical foundation for modern technology”, according to Creed. This matters, he insists:

It doesn't happen without Caterpillar.

He paints a picture of the world that Caterpillar is helping to build:

Imagine a mine operator who can automatically push a software update to instantly change how an entire fleet of mining trucks navigates a pit wall or a power producer, spotting early turbine or engine stress adjusting load automatically and dispatching a technician with the right parts before anyone on the ground even knows there's an issue.

The riskiest jobs, they shift to the machines, while people, our people, get to move into roles where their judgment matters the most. And as the system learns and optimizes in real-time efficiency increases, so does job site performance. That's what's most critical to our customers. That's what it looks like when the invisible layer gains intelligence when the physical foundation can respond in real time to what's happening around it.

Caterpillar’s physical world heritage is a major asset here, Creed argues:

The biggest bottlenecks in technology today, they're not in software; they’re actually in the physical world. AI needs more chips. Chips need minerals that are pulled from the ground. Data centers demand power more than today's grids can provide. In the entire digital economy, needs infrastructure that can be built faster, run harder and stay online, no matter what. Those aren't software problems. Those are problems Caterpillar is uniquely positioned to solve. And solving them is actually central to our strategy.

Dog food time

Inside Caterpillar, AI is being applied to alter the way the firm operates and the products it deliver. Creed says:

We're going to use AI to streamline our own processes, optimize our factories and use digital twins to design and test before we ever cut steel. We're focused on being the advanced technology leader in all of the industries that we serve. We're combining hardware and software, sensors and autonomy and data now with AI, so our customers can work safer do more with less, improve their sustainability and keep critical operations running when it matters the most.

A good example of all this in practice comes in the shape of Cat AI Assistant, pitched as a major leap forward in how the firm offers customer support, suggests  Chief Digital Officer, Ogi Redzic:

We’ll make it easier for customers to buy, to maintain, manage and operate their equipment. Doesn't matter whether they're working from corporate headquarters or remote job site. Technically speaking, the Cat AI Assistant is a group of AI agents operating together on top of our digital ecosystem presented as a single, single assistant. And it's multi-modal, so you can engage with it using speech, text, images or video.

Under the hood, we're building this with Helios on top of the latest AI tech. We're building a fleet of AI agents. that can see the state of our customers' fleets, understand what's happening and take actions through our applications or APIs.

But what matters most, however, is what this all feels like real life, he adds:

For a customer, Cat AI Assistant is like a pro-active partner. It flags machines that need attention, provides custom insights and makes actionable recommendations.

As an example, if a storm is coming, it can nudge you up to top up the fuel in your generators so you never caught off guard. If you're a condition monitoring analyst becomes an extra set of eyes on the customers' equipment, alerting them when the maintenance is coming due, recommending the right replacement parts and helping quickly answer questions so they can advise their customers more easily and with greater confidence.

If you're a technician, it's like having a library of 1,000 manuals at your fingertips. If you're unsure about a repair, it can walk you through the steps, highlight common issues, and suggest parts required to complete the repair, ensuring that you fix it right the first time.

And finally, for an operator in the cab, Cat AI Assistant is like a knowledgeable Copilot can answer how do I do this or how do I do that questions on the fly, can offer tips to improve productivity and reduce errors. And that will work, whether you're a seasoned pro or it's your first day on the job. And that last point is very important. This technology will dramatically simplify operating a machine. It will improve productivity and will help keep people safe.

My take

When silicon meets steel, the physical world becomes as dynamic and data-driven as a digital one.

A fascinating insight into how a heritage US firm is adapting to the potential of industrial-scale AI by building on its legacy and extending that into a digital future. I was struck by one passing comment from CDO Redzic about the particular challenges faced by a firm such as Caterpillar:

The adage in the tech world is to go fast and break things. We move fast at Caterpillar, but we cannot break things, not with so much on the line for our customers and our communities.

That’s an added pressure point that needs to be factored into any AI strategic thinking. To date, Caterpillar is proving to be a safe pair of hands on the AI journey.